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Chapter 4 – His Country

Alfred was a very skilled and experienced bushman, everyone trusted him. He was very familiar with much of the country between Melbourne and the Murray, an area of some pretty dry and challenging landscapes, but more importantly, in 1859 he had explored north of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. The Flinders Range is the tallest and largest of the Australian mountain ranges, although it is not continuous. The area is arid, red, and dusty with fascinating rock formations. The vegetation is very different from other areas, as it has to tolerate this harsh climate. The further north one goes, the further into the Aborigine homelands one gets. These are the Aborigines’ sacred areas, areas where they have their very unique and old examples of their art.

This extremely barren, red-earth country, known as the Red Centre, which exactly fits the stereotype of ‘the outback’, was a fascinating challenge to someone so focused on the natural world in which he now found himself. Joe had the most experienced explorer in Australia now showing him the ropes. On one occasion when they were riding along, in a new area for Joe, who remarked

“look at the sky, over there, it looks ominous” “umph, so what,” grunted Alfred. “It is like something out of space, something I have never seen before.” “Oh, is that all. It is a sand storm coming, but I don’t think it is coming our way”, said Alfred reassuringly.

“How do you know?” “Well firstly the wind is not blowing from that direction, although it could change, but not likely. If we see it getting nearer, we will have to get off our horses, and try to find some sort of cover. Most importantly, cover your face, your eyes and your mouth. The grit gets everywhere.” “What about the horses?” “We have to do the best we can for them. It is never nice! But it is usually over quite quickly.”

A pale orangey grey mass lay on the horizon but it was difficult to discern, at their distance, as to which way it was moving. The storm missed them, so on this occasion no problems. Although Joe was a well travelled man, he was still basically a city boy, where as Alfred who had grown up in towns, was now a well experienced adventurer, tamed by his environment.

Alfred showed Joe the different types of trees, especially the different types of eucalyptus, a tree he was very interested in, and one, which he eventually classified into all the different varieties of the species. The trees were supposed to be shallow rooted. Why? Possibly due to the shallow depth of good quality soil in certain areas, was one idea. “Why don’t they blow over in gales?” “Some do but the wood does not appear to rot”, this was something the early settlers had discovered. So their conversation continued for hours on end. All this was discussed at length, with no real answers.

Alfred explained that if you were an explorer, you had to ask all these what, when and how questions, you were safer yourself that way. Alfred explained that eucalyptus oil evaporated from the leaves in the heat of the day. He loved that smell. Different varieties had different shaped leaves, others had one type of leaf when the branch was young, but it changed shape as the branch matured. Another fascinating thing Alfred had heard about the tree, from the Aboriginal men here, was that it’s fluffy seeds would not germinate until they had been exposed to fire. “That sounds like a stupid thing for a seed to want!” interjected Joe.

Yet another quality of the species was its property of igniting. The beautiful fragrance that arises in the heat, vaporised the oil, which is easily ignited, then once a tree was on fire, it spread rapidly from tree to tree, and even leapt across valleys. “That’s interesting don’t you think. I shall have to look into these things”, pondered Joe.

These were some of the reasons why Alfred was so interested in them. His father had already requested seeds to give to a monastery in Italy, where the monks were unsuccessfully trying desperately to drain a bog area. William thought the eucalyptus trees would be the answer, and so they proved to be.

“When do you think of all these ideas?” Joe asked. “Well if you often ride for hours at a time on horseback, you just sit, and sit until something takes your attention, for me, that is wasting time, so I think, and think, and then muse. It is a very interesting occupation. You should try it,” was the reply.

Alfred was known to read and study his books whilst on such rides.